Hey there, it's Kathy. I just wanted to let you know that you can listen to History of the 90s

early and ad-free on Amazon music included with Prime.

On a cold, drizzly morning, an 80-vehicle convoy, which included two trucks hauling cattle trailers,

barrel down a dusty road in central Texas. As they approached their destination,

ATF agent Pete Maston, dressed in full battle gear, peered through a slit in the canvas that

concealed him and his colleagues. It was eerily quiet outside. There was no one around.

Suddenly the front door of the main building opened. A man with

long dark hair and glasses yelled something and then slammed the door shut. What happened next is highly

contested to this day. I'm Kathy Kinsora and on this episode, the final part in our series on the rise of

doomsday cults at the end of the 20th century.

Today, I want to tell you how an attempt to serve a search and arrest warrant turned

into a 51-day siege that ended in tragedy.

This is the story of the Branch Davidians.

The Branch Davidians are synonymous in many ways to David Koresh.

But they actually existed long before him.

They were founded by Victor Hottiff in 1930 as an offshoot of the Seventh-day Adventist,

a Christian religious movement that believes in the Second Coming of Christ,

and they currently have about 19 million members worldwide.

Hoddaugh joined the Seventh-Day Adventists after moving to the U.S. from Bulgaria.

But he disagreed with certain aspects of their theology, and he felt they weren't conforming

to the teachings of the church. He suggested some reforms and was kicked out.

That's when Hauda formed a group he called the Davidians.

...